


Allegedly "Stolen"

by Dikhotomia



Series: Edeleth Week 2k19 [2]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: A little angst, ALLEGEDLY, Edeleth Week, F/F, More Fluff, a little humor, hubert voice: the professor is a terrible influence on you your majesty, pillows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 14:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20837183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dikhotomia/pseuds/Dikhotomia
Summary: "The door opens to reveal Byleth -- who leaves it to swing the rest of the way until it thumps against the wall and starts a lazy track back -- light spilling in to the office from the hallway outside.  "Allegedly," she starts as she crosses the office and drops onto the nearby couch, using  the arm of it to prop herself up on. "Someone stole a shipment of pillows," she finishes, feet kicked up on the table and eyes fixed on the ceiling. "OREdelgard's day of paperwork ends up taking an odd. but not unpleasant, turn.





	Allegedly "Stolen"

**Author's Note:**

> Day two, fusion of prompts "Allegedly" and "Pillows" and sort of light because I can't ever just do one prompt.
> 
> Also I have no idea what I'm doing with Byleth's characterization so bear with me while I experiment.
> 
> As usual, unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine.

The door opens to reveal Byleth -- who leaves it to swing the rest of the way until it thumps against the wall and starts a lazy track back -- light spilling in to the office from the hallway outside. "_Allegedly,_" she starts as she crosses the office and drops onto the nearby couch, using the arm of it to prop herself up on. "Someone stole a shipment of pillows," she finishes, feet kicked up on the table and eyes fixed on the ceiling. 

"_Pillows_?" Edelgard asks, eyebrows lifting as she peers over the top of her paperwork. "Did you find someone to look into it?" Why would anyone want to steal pillows? she wonders, looking back down at the various papers scattered across the top of her desk. None of them had anything to do with trade, being mostly sign offs on various new laws or territories. She had no memory of anything about pillows -- despite feeling like she should -- or how Byleth even came to get involved with it.

"I asked Shamir and Catherine to see if they could find anything out," she replies, flicking a hand dismissively in the air. "It was for the orphanage so I want to get it sorted out as quickly as possible."

She remembers then, why the mention of pillows jogged something distant in the back of her mind. "Those were the ones Dorothea mentioned wanting to get for them, right?" She asks, papers forgotten, chin propped atop her palm.

"Yea, she's already been waiting a month and those kids need those new pillows," Byleth affirms, meeting her eyes. "I know you've been trying to take care of everything, but the war still really did a number on funds." Edelgard cringes inwardly, lip twisting in a grimace that reflects it.

"It has been a lot of catch up," she agrees, sitting back, hands threading over her stomach. "I know some places have been overlooked in the aftermath, thankfully they have you and the others looking out for them." The Black Eagle Strike Force in it's entirety had splintered, returning to old territories and houses and taking over, breaking down the old hierarchy to replace it with the new bit by bit.

Edelgard had paved the way, the rest of it now was in the hands of everyone else.

But, that wasn't the point here.

Byleth now stood at the edge of her desk, fingertips resting gently against the polished surface. "You went somewhere, El," she says, barely above a whisper. "I hope it wasn't anywhere bad."

Slowly she shakes her head, sitting forward to take one of Byleth's hands in her own. "No," she murmurs in reply. "I was just thinking about the others." She sees the tension in Byleth's shoulders ease, warm fingers curling around her palm, a thumb rubbing a soothing pattern over scarred knuckles.

"We'll see them again soon," Byleth assures, turning to lean a hip against her desk. 

"Has it really been that long?" She muses, looking at their hands as Byleth laces their fingers together. Every five years they had all agreed that they would meet up at the monastery and catch up, as friends -- _as family_ \-- instead of knights and leaders.

"Hey, at least we'll have an interesting story to tell," Byleth interjects in the spaces between her thoughts, with a murmur of laughter. "I mean, out of everything I get to deal with, an allegedly stolen shipment of pillows is pretty unexpected."

Edelgard could agree, as mundane as it sounded, it wasn't exactly on the list of things she anticipated climbing this high on the chain. But she also wasn't surprised, Byleth was always the type to help out anyone and everyone she could, no matter how mundane, or how dangerous the job or task. It was one of the many things that had drawn her to the Professor in the first place, and one of the many things that kept them tethered together even now.

"I still find it hard to believe 'allegedly stolen' has been tacked onto this, let alone why anyone would want to steal _pillows_." 

Byleth laughs for real at that, loud and long and purely childlike that warms Edelgard in a way a good cup of tea or a hot fire couldn't. "I don't know, honestly," she says once her laughter has died down, eyes shining with unshed tears. "Catherine and Shamir didn't know either. Shamir almost said the same thing word for word, '_Who would want to steal pillows?_' It's the great mystery of Enbarr currently." 

An over-exaggeration on Byleth's part, Edelgard is sure.

Her coming, fondly exasperated, reprimand is cut short by the appearance of a soldier at the still ajar office door. Her attention cuts to him before he can knock, the warmth of Byleth's hand slipping away as they break apart. "What is it?" She asks as he hesitates, then pushes the door all the way open. 

"Lady Catherine sent me to tell the professor she thinks they found the shipment at the docks," he says, bowing. "It's nothing you need to trouble yourself with, your majesty." 

Yet he has to know she already has, because Byleth is_ here._

(Though she's here most of the time anyway...)

"Thank you," she says, pushing herself up from her desk. "You're dismissed."

She sees him leave in her periphery, her attention having drifted back to her fiancee. "I could use a break from all this paperwork," she says offhandedly, a mischievous smirk pulling at the edge of her lips as soon as Byleth catches on.

"Then let's go."

\-----

The docks are as busy as she expects them to be at this time of day, workers and civilians and fishermen and all manner of other people coming and going in the way the sea comes and goes with the tides. It makes it harder to navigate, Byleth pressed close to her side as they weave and wind their way through the crowds of those that don't stand aside when they realize their Emperor is among them. 

She prefers it when no one notices her, prefers it when she can lose herself amidst the crowd and be taken for just a normal person; but the crown would always give her away, even dressed as modestly as she was otherwise.

It just came with the territory.

"There's Shamir," Byleth says from beside her, hand on her shoulder to direct her attention.

The other woman notices them at the same time, fingers flicking in a casual wave as they approach her. "Hey," she drawls as soon as they're within earshot, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "Catherine's over there.” 

_Still all business_, Edelgard thinks, following the other’s lead. 

“Hey Professor!” Catherine calls as they approach where she stands with a few dock workers, hands on her hips and usual grin in place. It breaks a little around the edges in surprise when she notices who else is tagging along, then comes back in full. “Hey Emperor, didn’t expect to see you.”

“You didn’t,” Edelgard replies with a shrug, earning a startled bark of laughter.

“Sure thing,” Catherine replies, just as quickly catching on to the mischief. “Anyway, These guys found the shipment. It didn’t get stolen, the idiot who delivered it forgot to register it so it got_ lost_. So when Dorothea got after him about it he panicked and claimed it got stolen to avoid looking bad.”

Beside her Byleth deadpans and Edelgard presses a hand to her face, expressing the exasperation they both feel with a heavy sigh. 

“I’m sorry to waste your time like this,” Byleth says both to the former knights and to the dock workers before they disperse, “I should have done it myself.”

“Hey, no need to apologize,” Catherine rebuffs, slinging an arm around Shamir who had wandered back to her side. “We needed something to do other than play cards all day.”

“She was getting restless,” Shamir adds, side eyeing her. “I was ready to smother her in her sleep.”

“No you weren’t,” Catherine shoots back. “You love me.”

“....Sometimes.”

It dissolves quickly into laughter.

\------

Dorothea is about as delighted to see them as she always is, flinging the door open to scoop them both into a hug. “Edie! Professor, I’m so glad to see you. Thanks for finding my ‘stolen’ pillows, the kids love them.” She steps back and ushers them both inside, chatting offhandedly about things that had been going on around the orphanage and at the opera house. 

For a blissful moment it feels like old times.

Until the children flood into the common room, the noise level picking up exponentially the more that join, all with smiles and their chosen pillows. She thinks for a moment that it’s rather adorable, seeing them all hugging them and talking over each other about whatever comes to mind while Dorothea tries to hush them. She thinks that she needs to start spending time among the people again instead of inside the palace.

She thinks, unaware of how far she had drifted, until a pillow hits her solidly in the side of the face. The pillow, and she can’t figure out _how_, catches on one of the elaborate horns of her crown and hangs there while she works past the surprise, blinking. The room around her has gone silent, everyone watching with a mix of shock and barely held back amusement.

Until her focus falls on Byleth, bent over in silent laughter, arms curled over her sides.

Edelgard, with a rising sense of familiar fond exasperation, pulls the pillow off her crown and arcs it straight back at her. 

And oh, there’s no stopping the chaos that becomes of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Catherine is there because I said so.
> 
> catch me on [Tumblr](http://dikhotomia.tumblr.com/) and or [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/modulatechaos)


End file.
